Arguments about God's existence Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Arguments about God's existence - Essay Example Arguments about God's existence However, belief is controlled by several factors such as evidence. The existence of evidence in experimentation points out to the fact that a hypothesis can hold a truth value. Therefore, the hypothesis can be a fact or a general truth as depicted by the evidence. The explanation about the existence of God is a subject that has been posited by several theoretical explanations. Some of the arguments and explanations that have been used by scholars to describe the existence of God include the cosmological argument, the teleological argument, and the ontological explanations. This paper discuses the teleological perspective that tries to explain the existence of God. it focuses on the arguments explanations and also reviews the criticisms that have been used as a basis of discrediting the argument. In the end, it defends the position taken by this explanation as a valid argument for the existence of God. The most prominent of facts that sum up the teleological argument about Gods existence is based on intelligent design. According to this school of thought, the existence of human-like intelligence in nature can be a possible explanation of the existence of God. The argument describes a scenario in which human intelligence drives the reasoning and direction of activities that result in meaningful action. The basic question in these happenings, therefore, is that while humans are guided by the free will to reason from their intelligence, what force pushes these phenomena to act in the same design and precision in nature.

Interviewing Sales Professionals assignment (15%) Essay

Interviewing Sales Professionals assignment (15%) - Essay Example The hotel is rated four-star, with comfortable guest rooms and dining facilities; a conference centre; entertainment centre; and a health and wellness centre. Services include all the standard services for luxury four-star hotels, from laundry and room service, to satellite television and broadband. These services are available in deluxe rooms, executive deluxe suites, business suites and super-large deluxe suites. Maggie sells to groups focusing on business, conferences, wellness tours, and tourism. Impressions of the Interviewee Nonverbal techniques Maggie uses very clear nonverbal techniques to make the person she is speaking to comfortable. Her greeting is formal, and her voice pitched low and smooth. Confidence in what she is saying is expressed both in her voice and in the relaxed, attentive posture she maintains when listening or speaking. After the formality of the greeting, her expression is friendly and receptive, with eye-contact maintained. Her body directly faces the per son she is speaking to, leaning slightly forward, and she maintains a slightly lower level of contact, seeming to look upward at the other party. She keeps her hands and arms relaxed, using some gestures to emphasize what she is saying in very controlled ways. When she listens, she slightly tilts her head, looking interested, and does not interrupt. It seemed throughout the interview, and sales presentations, that she has only one focus – the person/people she is interacting with. Appearance and demeanor In appearance, Maggie Chen is very well-groomed. She wears the dark-colored corporate uniform of the hotel chain. A friendly and approachable personality is evident. She reacts to questions in a thoughtful, confident way, thinking for a moment before answering in detail. The Presentation The sales presentation I attended was to a large chain of travel agencies, specializing in business conference organization for USA and Chinese companies. They were looking for hotels across China in which to stage conferences and business meetings for up to 100 delegates at a time, and ranging from 3 day to 10 day events, over the next 18 months. Their business would allow Ms. Chen to come close to achieving her targets for the year, as she would be able to report advance room bookings at approximately 30% of occupancy – half of what she was aiming for. A PowerPoint presentation had been prepared, and Maggie had thoroughly worked through the presentation. We arrived at the venue in the hotel 15 minutes before the representatives of the travel company were set to arrive, and all the technical aspects had been checked. Refreshments were laid out and the exact number of places had been arranged at the table. When the representatives arrived each was greeted in turn, from the most senior to the least senior and I realized that Maggie had researched the people and the company well enough to know all the details about them. Her PowerPoint presentation really just gave an overview of the hotel and what it has to offer in pictures and with music. It was the commentary by Maggie that identified the possible packages that could be put together to meet the exact needs of the travel agency and their planned conferences and meetings. She had also prepared a glossy handout, listing 4 options for the room bookings, and the

Authentication Mechanism for Fast Handover PMIPv6 Networks

Authentication Mechanism for Fast Handover PMIPv6 Networks N.S.Nandhinee S.Kayalvizhi Abstract—The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) proposed a host-based mobility management protocol, called Mobile IPv6 (MIPv6) protocol for mobile nodes (MNs) to maintain continuous service when they move among different foreign networks. However, Mobile IPv6 does not provide good service for real-time applications because it causes longer disruptions when the handoff takes place. Recently, the IETF NETLMM working group developed a network-based localized mobility management protocol called Proxy Mobile IPv6 (PMIPv6) to reduce the handoff latency of MIPv6. PMIPv6 still suffers from packet loss problem and signaling overhead. This paper performs a Bicasting scheme to reduce packet loss, use the piggyback technique to reduce the signaling overhead, also provides Authentication mechanism for protecting valid user from attacks in PMIPv6 networks. Keywords—Authentication, bicasting, handover, piggyback, Proxy Mobile IPv6 (PMIPv6) 1. Introduction As wireless technologies have grown, all the people want to use wireless networks while moving from one place to another. At the same time Mobile MIPv6 was developed by the internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) to support the Mobile Node. Even after introducing the Mobile IPv6 Mobile Nodes (MNs) did not receive any data packets when it performs the handover that involves , IP address configuration, movement detection and location update latencies. To reduce the handover latency, Fast Handover has been developed. Fast handover performs the movement detection and IP address whenever the Mobile Nodes move from one location to another. Therefore Fast handover protocol reduces the handover latency. However , MIPv6 cannot satisfy all the requirements of real time applications such as video streaming service and voice over internet protocol (VoIP) service due to its high handover latency. To address this problem, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) NETLMM working group developed a network based localized mobility management protocol called Proxy Mobile IPv6 (PMIPv6) to reduce the handoff latency of MIPv6.Moreover, PMIPv6 provides the IP with the mobility to support MNs without requiring its participation in any mobility-related signaling. Although PMIPv6 reduces lots of handoff latency compared with MIPv6, it still suffers from packet loss, signaling overhead and inefficient authentication procedure problems during handoff. This is because PMIPv6 does not use any buffer mechanism during the handoff procedure and performs the authentication and registration phases separately. Therefore this paper used a bicasting scheme for packet loss and piggybacking technique for signaling overhead. 2. Related works 2.1. survey on fast handover Chaung and Lee [2] proposed handoff schemes for PMIPv6 networks perform the authentication and registration phases separately, resulting in longer handoff latency. A. Pre-Handoff procedure The movements of an MN is detected using the MAG and it performs mobility-related signaling with the LMA in place of the MN. The pre-handoff phase starts only when the MN is going to leave the range of the serving MAG (i.e., MAG1). First, MAG1 sends a handoff initial (HI) message to the target MAG(i.e., MN-ID) and the address of the target MAG. Then , MAG2 sends back a handoff acknowledgement (HACK) message to MAG1, and then a bi-directional tunnel is built between MAG1 and MAG2. After the bi-directional tunnel is built , the buffer of MAG2 prepares to buffer. B. Fast Handoff procedure When the MN moves out of the transmission range of the MAG1, the MAG1 immediately starts sending the MN’S packets to MAG2 at the same time it buffers the packets to prevent from packet loss. After that MAG2 can start the authentication phase immediately. Now, MAG2 sends the AAA request which includes the profile of Mobile Node (i.e., MN-ID) to authenticate the MN and simultaneously sends the PBU message which piggybacks DeReg PBU message to refresh the binding cache entry of LMA. That is , the target MAG (i.e., MAG2) performs the registration phase on behalf of the Deregistration phase of previous MAG (i.e., MAG1).MAG1 stops the service and MAG2 takes the position of MAG2. Moreover, the authentication and registration phases are simultaneously performed so the executing time of these phases are overlapped. On receipt of the PBU message, the LMA sends a PBA message, which includes the HNP of the MN, deletes the old binding cache entry, establishes a new binding cache entry, and sets up a bi-directional tunnel between the LMA and new MAG (i.e., MAG2). Afterward through the new path the LMA transmits the packet to MAG2 and MAG2 buffers these packets for the MN. At the same time, the AAA server starts to authenticate. The MN sends the AAA response to MAG2. MAG2 also immediately sends an RA message to the MN when it detects the MN’s attachment. After receiving the RA message, the MN checks the RA message for finding where the MN locates in. The MN retains the original address if the MN moves in the same LMD. Otherwise, the MN configures the global IPv6 address on its interface from the HNP. Finally, the MN downloads the buffered packets from MAG2. Kim et al [4] The ERP exchange is not necessarily a full EAP method between the EAP peer and the EAP authenticator. It uses MSK sent from EAP server. In this paper, the EAP peer is the MN, the EAP authenticator is a Access Pointer (AP), EAP server is a AAA server and the LMA includes the AAA server. A. EAP authentication in PMIPv6 The MN sends the EAP-Request/Identity to previous AP (p-AP) and receives EAP Response/Identity from the EAP authentication. After the AP performs the EAP method exchange using AAA protocol, it performs the EAP method exchange with the MN. In the case of successful authentication, a MSK is sent by the AAA server to the AP. TSK is made using the MSK after when the MSK is received. TSK is shared with the MN and the TSK is used for per-packet access enforcement by the MN. B. Fast Handover scheme with ERP exchange in PMIPv6 In Proxy MIPv6, whenever the MN moves from its attachment AP to a new attachment AP within the Access Router, it delivers the MSK and performs the re-authentication process. However, the MN performs the Full EAP Method when the MN moves from one attachment MAG network to another new MAG network. In Fast Handover of PMIPv6, the MN performs the Full EAP Method. During Fast Handover period the full EAP method is delayed. The ERP Exchange scheme is used in Fast Handover of PMIPv6 to reduce the full EAP delay. In PMIPv6, Fast Handover schemes are under the propounded phase. Therefore we select the best Scheme of the Fast Handover schemes after the MN performs the Full EAP Method, MSK is received from EAP server and uses the MSK. When the movement of the MN is detected by p-AP, it sends a HO initiate message which includes the MN Identifier (MN ID), new-AP ID and the MSK to the p-MAG. The p-MAG sends a Fast PBU message to the LMA which also receives the HO initiate message. Note that the F ast PBU message includes the information of the HO initiate message. Once the LMA sends back the Fast PBA to the p-MAG it establishes a binding between the HNP which is assigned to the MN and its new PCoA. A Reverse PBU message is sent to the n-MAG by the LMA. The Reverse PBU message consists of the MN ID, HNP of the MN used in the p-MAG, n-AP ID, and the MSK sent from the EAP server. The RA message consists of the HNP, and the MSK which is sent by the n-MAG. MN does not perform a new EAP Method and AAA (EAP Method) scheme when it performs fast handover. Therefore the MSK used in the n-MAG network can also be used in the p-MAG network and the MN is not necessary to complete EAP Method and AAA (EAP Method) between the AAA server and AP. Ryu et al [6] PFMIPv6 to reduce the handover latency occurred in PMIPv6 . PFMIPv6 has two mode: one is the predictive mode and the other is the reactive mode. The solution for handover is described in the following steps : First: The MN reports the identifications of its own (MN ID) and the access point (New AP ID) to which the Mobile Node is most likely to move and also detects that a handover is immediate. The NMAG receives the HI from PMAG which is sent by it. The HI message must include the MN ID and should include the MN-HNP, the MN-ID and the address of the LMA that is currently serving the MN Second: A bi-directional tunnel is built between the PMAG and NMAG and the packets decided for the MN are forwarded from the PMAG to the NMAG over this tunnel. The packets may be buffered at the NMAG after the decapsulation process. If the connection between the N-AN and NMAG has already been established, then those packets may be forwarded towards the N-AN. Third: The MN establishes a connection (e.g., radio channel) with the N-AN, which in turn initiates the establishment of the connection between the N-AN and NMAG if it has not been established already. The NMAG starts to forward packets destined for the MN via the N-AN. The uplink packets from the MN are sent to the NMAG and the NMAG forwards them to the PMAG. The PMAG then sends the packets to the LMA that is currently serving the MN. Final: The NMAG sends the PBU message to the LMA, in which address is provided in HI message from the PMAG to NMAG. Ryu et al [5] Mobile IPv6 needs client functionality in the IPv6 stack of a mobile node (MN). Exchange of signaling messages between the MN and a home agent (HA) enables the creation and maintenance of binding between the MN’s home address and its care-of address. Mobility as specified in Mobile IPv6 requires the IP host to send IP mobility management signaling messages to the HA, which is located in the network. MIPv6 is a approach of host-based mobility to solve the IP mobility challenge. However, it takes a very long time to process handover and there is much packet loss during handover, since there are many signaling messages through wireless link which occurs longer delay during handover process. Network-based mobility is another approach to solve the IP mobility challenge. By extending Mobile IPv6 signaling messages and reusing the HA it is possible to support mobility for IPv6 nodes without host involvement. This approach to support mobility does not require the Mobile Node to be involved in the exchange of signaling messages between itself and the Home Agent (HA). A Mobile Access Gateway (MAG) does the mobility management on behalf of the MN attached to the network and also performs the signaling with the HA . This protocol is known as Proxy Mobile IPv6 (PMIPv6) in Network-based Localized Mobility Management (NETLMM) working group of Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). Since the proxy mobility agent on behalf of the Mobile Node performs handover process,PMIPv6 can reduce handover latency. That is, there are some signaling message via wireless link. Heavy packet loss occurs during handover in PMIPv6, although PMIPv6 reduces handover latency.This paper propose a Packet- Lossless PMIPv6 (PL-PMIPv6) with authentication to reduce the packet loss problem in PMIPv6. The similar kind of scheme was studied to reduce packet loss and handover latency in Mobile IPv6, such as fast handovers for MIPv6 (FMIPv6) . In PL-PMIPv6, a previous MAG (pMAG) register s to a Local Mobility Anchor (LMA) on behalf of a new MAG (nMAG) during layer 2 handoff. Then, during handover after registration nMAG buffers. Compared to MIPv6 and PMIPv6, PL-MIPv6 can reduce more packet loss. To receive the MN’s profile securely we use Also, we use Authentication, Authorization and Accounting (AAA) infrastructure to authenticate the MN and to receive MN’s profiles securely. We show the performance of PL-PMIPv6 through the comparison of packet loss during handover of MIPv6, PMIPv6 and PLPMIPv6. Authentication with Packet-Lossless PMIPv6 (PL-PMIPv6), to reduce packet loss in PMIPv6. The order of signaling flow in PMIPv6 is followed by PL-PMIPv6 and reduces packet loss. Once the pMAG is aware of the MN’s detachment, it sends the DeReg PBU message to the LMA in PMIPv6. When pMAG sends the DeReg PBU message, nMAG’s PBU message is included in DeReg PBU message in PL-PMIPv6. That is, the pMAG registers on behalf of the nMAG in advance to reduce handover latency. As a result, the tunnel between the nMAG and the LMA is built in advance. Also, the nMAG begins to buffer packets to the MN after it receives the PBA message. After layer 2 handoff, the MN sends the RS message and receives the RA message including the MN’s home network prefix. 3. APPLICATIONS 1) Selective IP Traffic Offload Support with Proxy Mobile IPv6 2) Network-based Mobility Management in a local domain (Single Access Technology Domain) 3) Inter-technology handoffs across access technology domains (Ex: LTE to WLAN, eHRPD to LTE, WiMAX to LTE) 4) Access Aggregation replacing L2TP, Static GRE, CAPWAP based architectures, for 3G/4G integration and mobility 4. ABBREVIATIONS 5. CONCLUSION Fast handovers are transferring of ongoing calls from one channel to another without interruption. Here , Fast Handover analysis reduces the latency in sending the packets from one node to another. In this paper techniques like piggybacking is used to reduce the signaling overhead , bicasting scheme reduces the packet loss by storing all the packets in a buffer and whenever the packet is lost ,the packets are retransmitted from the buffer. Previous papers used only ID for authentication process, this paper used a password authentication mechanism. The result analysis showed that these schemes provide a better solution than existing schemes. 6. REFERENCES Chowdhury K., Koodli R and Yokota H., (2010) ‘Fast Handovers for Proxy Mobile IPv6’, IETF Draft, draft-yokota-mipshop-pfmipv6-13 (work in progress). Chuang M.-C. and Lee J.-F., (2011) ‘FH-PMIPv6: A fast handoff scheme in proxy mobile IPv6 networks’, in Proc. IEEE CECNET, pp. 1297–1300. Chuang M.-C. and Lee J.-F, (2011) ‘A lightweight mutual authentication mechanism for network mobility in IEEE 802.16e wireless networks’, Comput. Netw., vol. 55, no. 16, pp. 3796–3809. Chung T.-M., Kim S.-D., and Lee J.-H., (2009) ‘Secure fast handover scheme of proxy mobile IPv6’, in Proc. IEEE Int. Joint Conf. INC IMS IDC NCM, pp. 555–558. Kim B., Kim G-Y, Mun Y. and Ryu s., (2008) ‘A scheme to reduce packet loss during PMIPv6 handover considering authentication’, in Proc. IEEE Int.Conf. Comput. Sci. Its Applicat., pp. 47-51. Kim M., Mun Y. and Ryu S., (2009) ‘Enhanced fast handovers for proxy mobile IPv6’ , in Proc. IEEE Int. Conf. Comput. Sci. Its Applicat. (ICCSA), pp.39-43. Zhang H. and Zhou H., (2008) ‘An authentication protocol for Proxy Mobile IPv6’ ,in Proc. IEEE Int. Conf. Mobile Ad-Hoc Sensor Network, pp. 129-136.

The American Family: Then and Now Essay -- Sociology, American History

What exactly is a family? Some would say it is a father, mother, and possibly children, but is this an outdated definition? With the world adapting and changing at such a high rate, it proves difficult to create definite boundaries for what constitutes a family. As events that are either detrimental or beneficial to society occur, family lives adapt to better suit the current state. The differences in culture, religion and traditions can offer possible explanations for why families are not the same, locally and globally. Sociological relationships change to fit the people involved in them, so it only makes sense that family groups would differ by location. This paper will discuss the ways that families in America have evolved over time. Also, I will explain what occurrences caused the need for such changes. The comprehension of any new concept starts with a basic definition. According to Macionis, family is a â€Å"social institution found in all societies that unites people in cooperative groups to care for one another, including children† (2009:375). The diversity of families in America dates back to the colonial period. There were a variety of different family types that coexisted or competed in colonial America (Coontz 2005: 27). In this time period, the husband would work all day and leave the children at home with the mother. The mother, however would rarely tend to the children. She would do house work and leave the children with an older sibling or servant. This caused a lack of sentimental feelings in childhood because the mother was not the nurturer. Coontz states that among wealthy, white families specifically, the basis of the relationship was built on power, not love (2005: 28). The modernization and industrialization ... ...order for America to continue as a successful country, there will need to be strong family units who are prepared to face the downfalls that will come due to a changing government and economy. The success rates of a family, however, are much deeper than economic or government issues. Hard work, compassion, and communication are components that can be seen in almost any successful family at any time period. In striving to achieve these aspects of a family unit, America’s families would find much more stability than previously seen and be better equipped to face hard times. References Coontz, Stephanie. 2005. â€Å"The Way We Weren’t: The Myth and Reality of the â€Å"Traditional† Family.† National Forum: The Phi Kappa Phi Journal Summer: 27-34. Macionis, John J. Society: the Basics with Additional Readings in Sociology. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Do We Depend Too Much on Computers Essay

As civilization advances we depend more and more upon our invention. There is technology that saved many lives, as well as the one that have destroyed whole cities. Good morning members of the jury, parents, teachers and students. My name is Hugo Mendoza and I will talk about dependency on computers. I choose it because I think people must know all the benefits it brings to our daily life. So, do we depend too much in computers? The answer is that yes, all days we use computers in the business, public services, education, and the most of all entertainment. Even if we don’t note it our life is affected by technology and computers behind all. I will focus about technology in general. After all these years, technology has been evolving constantly; it has facilitated our life in all aspects. First of all, medicine, medicine has improved a lot by the use of technology in hospitals and labs, improving the health of the sick and in bringing up a new medicine for a no before-seen disease quicker than before. There are healing machines that can cure people faster than would take by human hand. Then, there are vehicles such as cars that use the GPS or the monitor to show how much gas is left select music and more. There are even airplanes that can be monitored by computers, and trains that are controlled by computers to prevent a collision. Children play videogames like PS3 or Xbox, with these videogame consoles they will have better experience in computers and will be able to understand better the technology when they grow up. Computers like PC’s and Mac are used by us every day for school, work, and assignments. Students can get into the internet and find any information they want, we can communicate by long distances, and even get an online tutor for any class. By the other hand, technology has been used to create destruction by fabricating guns, war machines and devices like nuclear bombs. This is the other face of technology, and has been used in wars such as World War II. If we continue to make guns, war machine and bombs with the improvement of technology maybe in the future there will be a bomb huge enough to destroy a country or a continent. It would be the end of the world if it’s like that. Scientists fear that in next generations, machines replace completely work done by humans and we doing nothing; they fear that we will not do sport and depend completely on computers. If it’s like that, what would happen if the systems fail to work? There would be complete chaos. Or worse, what would happen if all the systems refuse to listen to people’s orders and do what they want? Nobody knows, and we don’t want to know. We have to do something about this. In my opinion, technology and computers have to do a lot in the world we lived today and we can’t live anymore without them, as we got used too much on them. However, technology is a double-edge sword and we should find the way to make this dependency less dangerous and safer for future generations. There most only be new inventions when we really need they are really important, useful and helpful for humans.

Investigative Technology Review and Critique Essay

Dr. Derek Paulsen examines geographic profiling methods and technologies. The findings are the result of a research grant from the National Institute of Justice (NIJ). The purpose of this research is to analyze the accuracy of and suggest methods for increasing the effectiveness of geographic profiling technologies. The research emphasizes the importance of making the distinction between commuter or marauder offenders prior to geographic profiling. Dr. Paulsen demonstrates that by improving the commuter/marauder prediction early in the process and by conducting more targeted research in the field, geographic profiling technology can be more effective and results can be more accurate. Geographic profiling has been used in crime analysis since the early 1990s. It is an investigative methodology that relies on location of connected crimes series as a means of determining the next probable location known as an offender anchor point. According to Dr. Paulsen, 20 to 60 percent of crime series are committed by commuters, and geographic profiling is highly inaccurate in predicting these series. Therefore, it is important to analyze variables and methods used to classify commuters and marauders prior to geographic profiling. This study analyzed 106 crime series gathered from 25 U. S. jurisdictions. This study differed from traditional methods in the use of variables applied to classify offenders as commuter or marauder. Traditional models use residence as primary variable to determine classification. Paulsen modified this method to look at any of 14 known variables which might classify as marauders where traditional models may classify as commuters and performing logistic regression with SPSS software. Since profiling is inaccurate in predicting commuter series, Paulsen’s results improved the accuracy of prediction rate from 60% to 81% by changing the classification process. The findings are significant in that they are at odds with traditional theories of offender patterns and characteristics. Traditional theories state that marauders commit offenses closer to home. However, Paulsen’s research shows that commuters operate in smaller geographic areas with more locations while marauders operate in larger more dispersed areas. Three important implications arise from this study. Further research is needed to develop a method for determining commuter/marauder classification that can be used in multiple geographic profiling systems. Research is needed to determine if methods and results are accurate in various jurisdictions with differing demographics and crime characteristics. Alternative profiling and forecasting methods must be weighed against this and other existing research. Previous studies were limited in number, only two, and in scope, focusing on software platform features and case studies and covering limited jurisdictions. This study more extensive in size and scope. The primary limitation of this study is that the entire sample consists of previously solved crimes. This underscores the need to conduct similar research on unsolved crimes to determine the accuracy of this model when all variables are not known. Additionally the case selection process for this study is limited by the police departments’ rationale for selecting cases to send for the study which is not addressed. Geographic profiling is a widely used crime analysis methodology which can and should be more effective. By analyzing existing results and modifying components of the profiling process crime prediction rates can be significantly improved. Improving results of geographic profiling will depend on continued research of adequate size and scope that focuses on alternative classification methods, a range of geographic locations, and solved and unsolved crimes. Reference Paulsen, D. (2007, September). Improving Geographic Profiling through Commuter/Marauder Prediction. Police Practice & Research, 8(4), 347-357. Retrieved March 11, 2009, from Academic Search Premier database.

Independence and decolonization essays

Independence and decolonization essays With World War II out of the way, it brought an uprising in decolonization in many countries. This was a great thing to happen for people in these countries to gain independence from colonies and empires. Decolonization didnt happen over night, it took almost three decades after World War II for some places. With colonial powers weakening, that brought opportunity for independence to Africa and Asia. Not only were Africa and Asia part of this process, British, French, Dutch, Spanish, and Portuguese empires emerged new nations. The cold war and the end of empire came together to make for a new kind of world. The most important thing to happen from World War II was the end of empire. With the cold war going on it made the small nations to have to decide between communism and capitalism. That was hard for these countries because of threat of nuclear terror going around. Nations achieved independence at different times and almost ninety nations gained independence between World War II and 1980. (Bentley, 975) With the cold war coming into play, it brought newfound nations trying to stay out of harms way with super power countries. New nations were developed all over Asia, from Pakistan to Cambodia. Each of them had there hard times in developing independence. They were trying to get away from imperialism and colonialism and got support from Asian nationalists. To achieve new independence, India didnt go with out having confrontation of violence. To split up India into Hindu and Muslim states was partition and that violated their ideas. They came to accept that idea and the move began from one place to the other. It brought between half a million and a million to their deaths because of the whole movement of migration. When a Hindu extremist killed Mohandas Gandhi, there was still hope of recovery from all of this. Still conflict was going on between India and Pakistan and that brought hardshi...

Modern Psychology essays

Modern Psychology essays "Jerry, Jerry, Jerry..." Everyday, this chant is heard by millions of people watching the now infamous "talk show", Jerry Springer. Even though just a few years ago, most people regarded these shows as ridiculous, now this chant is recognized and adored by many people in society. The most parsimonious explanation for this is that the shows now have more interesting and captivating topics. The premise of most episodes of these shows has changed greatly over the past few years; The topics have moved away from large scale social issues, like homosexuality and cancer, to relationship and familial issues, like adultery and mothers who are too flirtatious with their daughter's boyfriends. Many people would argue that the issues being presented now are not as interesting or captivating as the older issues. However, after watching an old episode and a new episode, most people agree that the emotions displayed by the guests in the newer shows are more visible, with actions such as onstag e yelling and fighting. The general emotional content of the episodes has changed from sadness to anger. From a psychological standpoint, there are many influences that cause extreme anger to be displayed by the guests on "talk shows". Imagine being a guest on the Jerry Springer show, as you walk onto the stage you see the large audience chanting those infamous words. You sit down next to your fiance not knowing what to expect, you are nervous and anxious. Finally, Jerry says those terrible words, "So, don't you have something to tell your fianc?" She turns to you, looks into your eyes and says, "Remember about a month ago when I disappeared at that party at your house? Well, that night your brother and me left the party early. I'm sorry, I have been sleeping with your brother for the past month." Suddenly, the anxiousness that you experienced is gone and replaced by anger, intense anger. You turn to Jerry as he asks you, "Wow, ...

Annotated Bibliography the relationship between online games and it players

Annotated Bibliography the relationship between online games and it players Ahn, Jae-hyeon and Park, Bong-won. 2008. â€Å"Imposing Tax and Rebate Policy for Game Addiction Problem.† Paper presented at the annual International Conference of the System Dynamics Society, July 20-24, Athens, Greece. This article introduces the relationship between online games and its players, and attempts to explain the possible social problems online gaming has caused among some players. Ahn and Park address the problem of gaming addiction and its effects on society as a whole. They investigate interested parties of online gaming to create a base model to help explain the increase or decrease of the participants over time with consideration to the positive/negative images of the activity. In addition to their investigative studies, Ahn and Park also propose a possible solution to the game addiction problems. They suggest implementing a tax and rebate policy which they believe will better the social image of online gaming while simultaneously decreasing the number of g ame addicts. This paper is an especially interesting source as it provides contrasting views on the advancement of technology (in regards to online gaming) compared to other sources, and proffers a most curious solution to the gaming addiction dilemma. This article was found through Google with the keywords: â€Å"Korea† and â€Å"game addiction.† Borries, Friedrich von, Matthias Bottger, and Steffen P. Walz. 2007. Space Time Play: Computer Games, Architecture and Urbanism : The Next Level. Berlin: Burkhauser Verlag AG. The authors illustrate how the revolution of the computer and video gaming age are changing the lives of people today. The authors have compiled a great selection of writings regarding the process of altering our perception of reality and virtuality. There are several selections articulating issues related to game players’ ability to discern real and imaginary spaces, such as â€Å"Creating Alternate Realities† and â€Å"Life is Not a Gam e.† These writings will help to support my thesis that online gaming and technology diffusion has indeed impacted society’s male youths. Another crucial aspect this book covers is found in the â€Å"Competing Metagame Space,† where the chapter specifically communicates the seriousness of online gaming, namely Starcraft, in Korea. This book was found through the Gleeson Library online catalog when I searched the keywords: â€Å"Korea† and â€Å"online gaming.† Ess, Charles and Fay Sudweeks. 2001. Culture, Technology, Communication. Albany: State University of New York. Focusing on theoretical approaches and case studies, the authors of this book offer insightful perspectives on the ideas of culture, communication, and technology as it discusses cultural values and technological communication of today’s modern society. The authors have gathered sources from diverse cultural domains to investigate the relation between cultural values and communi cative preferences with respect to genders. This book is another compilation of analytical essays that examine how technology diffusion has affected local cultures. In the chapter, â€Å"Culture, Computer Literacy, and Media,† the study focuses on the statistics of Korean computer users and how the media influences people to utilize it to its utmost extent. This chapter entertains a possible idea why people in Korea are heavily absorbed in computer usage. This book was found through the Gleeson Library online catalog when I searched the keywords: â€Å"Korea,† â€Å"technology,† and â€Å"culture.†

Summary and reflect two articles Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Summary and reflect two articles - Essay Example They also reveal the way the masking process on the way product is produced has implications on the organization and environment. Therefore, they recommend that organizations should address the ongoing social and environmental process under capitalism. Hudson and Hudson (2003) reveal the way fair trade attempts to make visible for both social and environmental relations of commodity production and exchange process. This is vital because it enables the producer to make a shift in the production nature; thus solving the issues of product impact to both producers and the environment. The main purpose of the authors was to examine the degree to which the fair trade is effective in addressing or solving the commodity fetishism problems. Thus, they wanted to address this issue through identifying the barriers, which fair trade encounters in an attempt to unmask production process of commodities. Plant, B. (January 01, 2005). Socially responsible investing: the maturing of financial analysis. Policy Options, 26, 6, 39-43 is the article, which focuses on the way being socially responsible, can contribute to successful economic performance of Canada. Plant argues that one can become wealthier, or an economy can achieve economic development through being socially responsible. She asserts that by looking beyond the investments bottom line should not necessarily mean forgetting the profits but rather helps to shade light on the financial issue (Plant, 2005). The author focuses on the way Canadian government has made significant efforts of establishing environmental, social and governmental responsibilities in order to improve the competitive nature and stability of the Canadian economy. Although others argue that being responsible can enable an individual to become rich, the research indicates that no one receives penalty for being socially responsible. However,

Medicine in the Ancient and Medieval World Essay

Medicine in the Ancient and Medieval World - Essay Example Long before Western society developed even a rudimentary level of understanding concerning the human body and/or disease, societies within Asia were figuratively light years ahead of what understanding was represented within the Western world. As a function of discussing an understanding this differential to a more full and complete manner, following analysis will be concentric upon representing the case of India and the case of Georgia1; with regard to how these societies and cultures integrated with an understanding, interpretation, and application of relevant understandings of health and/or patient care. It is the hope of this author that the reader will be able to utilize these relevant interpretations as a means of engaging with an understanding contributions and differentials that other cultures have been able to bring to the field of medicine throughout the course of millennia. Dating as far back as 5000 B.C.E., Ayurveda, is a system of traditional medicine that is native to the Indian subcontinent. Although there is a great deal of disagreement among historians and scholars with respect to the actual amount of change that has been exhibited within Ayurveda since it first came to appear within the historical record, it is clear that this particular approach to medicine and understanding the relevant needs and issues that the human body experiences has fundamentally shaped the way in which individuals from this part of the world integrate with an understanding of healthcare. In determining the ultimate background of this particular approach to medicine, it must be stated that from a review of relevant resources and a historical analysis, the reader can and should come to the understanding that Ayurveda initially was put forward in tandem with religious practice and interpretation of the spirit world. This is a fundamentally important aspects of early Indian medicine as it has been retained, passed on, and understood in tandem

Marketing Audit and set Marketing Objectives for British American Assignment

Marketing Audit and set Marketing Objectives for British American Tobacco Company - Assignment Example The threats facing the company include the illicit and counterfeit trade, stringent regulations, high excise taxes and stiff competition. BAT can use its strengths to exploit opportunities in the e-cigarette customer segment, lucrative China market or make strategic acquisitions in emerging markets. BAT is a leading global tobacco company that was founded in 1902. The company has operates in more than 200 countries and has attained success through acting responsibly in the controversial tobacco industry (Lussier 2008). BAT has a diverse product portfolio that includes more than 200 brands that are sold in more than 200 markets across the world. The market is estimated at one billion adult smokers and some of the global brands include Dunhill, Pall Mall, Rothmans, Benson & Hedges, and Lucky Strike. Yach and Bettcher (2000) outlines that BAT has a strong presence in all geographical markets such as Americas, Asia-Pacific Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa and has established 45 cigarette factories in 41 countries across the world (p 210). The traditional BAT tobacco products include the cigarettes, cigars, pipe tobacco while the next-generation products that are more innovative include the electronic cigarettes and heat-not-burn devices (Hagele 2010). According to the 2013 financial results, BAT attained strong market and strong earnings growth despite unfavourable operating environment and currency movements in some parts of the world. The company increased its diluted earnings per share by 6 percent in 2013 and total dividends were increased by 6 percent. The company managed to sell 676 billion cigarettes in more than 200 market and recorded 15,260 million pounds in revenues. BAT adopted a new vision and new strategy in 2013 that reflects the needs of the consumers. BAT has implemented a sustainability approach to its

Exhibition Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Exhibition - Research Paper Example Modernism, as an imperative aspect of humanity, mushroomed and completely changed the way people were doing things. The fundamental changes underwent changed the notion and perception of humanity to the better. As a theme, modernism illustrates the past and cultural activities of the ancient people while the political and sociological theme mainly aims at presenting the mode of governance and the social life of the people during the period the artwork was done. This project shall candidly and comprehensively elucidate on an art exhibition that presents various Latin America and modern artworks, elucidate on the luster, texture, artistic impression as well as the artistic styles used in an effort to understand and link the arts to the theme of modernism. The first image in the presentation is the Cortà ©s and la Malinche, a 1923-26 art by Josà © Orozco. Four lines bound the image. At the top, it has a horizontal multi-colored line that inevitably grabs the attention of the viewer at first sight. A man and woman are drawn grabbing the body parts of each other while stepping on another man that is lying on the ground1. The black frames of the artwork candidly portrays melancholy that an audience can easily associate with the events that are going on in the image as well as the overall hardships and pains that traditions brought to a society that was striving to be civilized and adopt modern ways of doing things. It also overly uses light and dark visual artifice. Apparently, the image is a 2D artwork with an ostensibly rough texture. It is drawn from gold and silver to give the artwork an impressive view and portray the artist’s aptitude and capability of mixing different colors to create a remarkable image. In the half of th e whole ground that is the fore ground the texture is smooth which is different from the background where by the texture is rough. This connotes a difference in the whole art

Music assigment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Music assigment - Essay Example The audiences are particularly attentive as the songs are being played as they find themselves knocked off their feet by the skillfulness and humor of the band. Moreover, the success of the majority of his albums has positively influenced the reception of his Benny performances as audiences are always eager to learn more from performances done by the band. The use of visual aspects in performances featuring blues after dark by Benny Golson add to the performance as they make the show lively, hence retaining the audience attention in listening the different bands being played. Blues after dark by Benny Golson is a piece of the album gone with Gibson. The duration of the piece is eight minutes and thirty seven seconds and the original date which it was released was January 20, 2009. The tune reminds an audience of the artistry involved in the composition of the piece since it is associated with synchronized swimming. The piece also has a wonderful team of blues which is carefully coordinated to show the chemistry and teamwork resulting to the melancholy of the piece. The sound produced from the piece is rich and compelling to audiences as its simple and passionate. I remember Clifford by benny Gibson is piece paying homage to the hard bop jazz trumpeter Clifford Brown. The use of lyrics versions in this piece has improvised the use of instrumental solos, making the piece interesting to the different audiences present at the performance. The sound effects used in the piece also compliments the use of instruments like the piano, thus creating a rhythm that augurs well with audiences listening to the performance. Instrument use like use of string, brass enhances the beats of the piece thus making the performance to be conducted at the stipulated time. Blues after dark by Benny Golson and I remember Clifford by benny

Marketing Audit and set Marketing Objectives for British American Assignment

Marketing Audit and set Marketing Objectives for British American Tobacco Company - Assignment Example The threats facing the company include the illicit and counterfeit trade, stringent regulations, high excise taxes and stiff competition. BAT can use its strengths to exploit opportunities in the e-cigarette customer segment, lucrative China market or make strategic acquisitions in emerging markets. BAT is a leading global tobacco company that was founded in 1902. The company has operates in more than 200 countries and has attained success through acting responsibly in the controversial tobacco industry (Lussier 2008). BAT has a diverse product portfolio that includes more than 200 brands that are sold in more than 200 markets across the world. The market is estimated at one billion adult smokers and some of the global brands include Dunhill, Pall Mall, Rothmans, Benson & Hedges, and Lucky Strike. Yach and Bettcher (2000) outlines that BAT has a strong presence in all geographical markets such as Americas, Asia-Pacific Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa and has established 45 cigarette factories in 41 countries across the world (p 210). The traditional BAT tobacco products include the cigarettes, cigars, pipe tobacco while the next-generation products that are more innovative include the electronic cigarettes and heat-not-burn devices (Hagele 2010). According to the 2013 financial results, BAT attained strong market and strong earnings growth despite unfavourable operating environment and currency movements in some parts of the world. The company increased its diluted earnings per share by 6 percent in 2013 and total dividends were increased by 6 percent. The company managed to sell 676 billion cigarettes in more than 200 market and recorded 15,260 million pounds in revenues. BAT adopted a new vision and new strategy in 2013 that reflects the needs of the consumers. BAT has implemented a sustainability approach to its

Music assigment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Music assigment - Essay Example The audiences are particularly attentive as the songs are being played as they find themselves knocked off their feet by the skillfulness and humor of the band. Moreover, the success of the majority of his albums has positively influenced the reception of his Benny performances as audiences are always eager to learn more from performances done by the band. The use of visual aspects in performances featuring blues after dark by Benny Golson add to the performance as they make the show lively, hence retaining the audience attention in listening the different bands being played. Blues after dark by Benny Golson is a piece of the album gone with Gibson. The duration of the piece is eight minutes and thirty seven seconds and the original date which it was released was January 20, 2009. The tune reminds an audience of the artistry involved in the composition of the piece since it is associated with synchronized swimming. The piece also has a wonderful team of blues which is carefully coordinated to show the chemistry and teamwork resulting to the melancholy of the piece. The sound produced from the piece is rich and compelling to audiences as its simple and passionate. I remember Clifford by benny Gibson is piece paying homage to the hard bop jazz trumpeter Clifford Brown. The use of lyrics versions in this piece has improvised the use of instrumental solos, making the piece interesting to the different audiences present at the performance. The sound effects used in the piece also compliments the use of instruments like the piano, thus creating a rhythm that augurs well with audiences listening to the performance. Instrument use like use of string, brass enhances the beats of the piece thus making the performance to be conducted at the stipulated time. Blues after dark by Benny Golson and I remember Clifford by benny

Human Rights and World Wide Web Essay Example for Free

Human Rights and World Wide Web Essay These findings lend support to research showing a negative correlation between corporate social responsibility and profitability. Introduction We are witness to the metamorphosis of late capitalism, the interpenetration of postindustrialism with postmodern culture. Spectators (consumers and investors) are given only narrative fragments to construct worker and ecological stories from the vantage points of entry authored by corporate public relations. Corporate authorial-power becomes hegemonic as narrative plots script actions and perception in ways unseen or taken for granted. Consumers in the first world cannot see the ecological or work conditions because these locations are kept as strategic secrets. All one ever hears are stories directly authored by corporate interests acting as gatekeeper, authoring ventriloquist stories on behalf of workers and ecology. What is the relevance of this to Tamara? The play, Tamara, written by John Krizanc (1981, 1989) entraps us as spectators in a maze of story and character choices where our own complicity in civic responsibility stares back at us. Some characters have a voice and access to any spectators; others have either a weak voice or limited access. In Tamara Manifesto (Boje, 2001), there was a call to heed the interpenetration of postindustrialism and postmodern culture, the intertextuality of production, distribution, and consumption. Manguel (1988:1-2) gives us a starting definition of traditional theatrics: Theater, the representation of events as if they happened before your eyes begins with the convention of all spectacle: a division of reality. One space allotted to the audience, the passive viewer, seated to observe; another to the play, the actors, moving to perform. In one space theater, spectators and performers must follow the linear storyline of authorial authority and view the performance from the viewpoint the playwright has determined will be seen by the spectators. In Tamara, the barrier between spectator and actor spaces has been breeched; the spaces co-mingle and spectators become actors on many stages. My theory is that there are three divided spaces with narrators telling stories that connect them operating in a kind of Tamara interconnecting three theatrical spaces: 1. First, a consumptive space of spectators, the consumers and investors from the first world; 2. Second, a distributive space is reserved for performing executives, PR managers, and consultants, who mediate stories performed to the first space on behalf of those in a third space; 3. Third, a productive and ecological space, of the Third World where mostly young women toil and where environmental laws are more lax; workers and forests can not be seen or heard by those in the first space (and maybe not the second). We will look to see how in one industry (athletic apparel) spectators are given a few more choices, in what we call the Athletic Apparel Industry Tamara, to accompany whatever character and story they choose, masters or servants from country to country (or factory to showroom), knowing that there are simultaneous performances and they can not be in every place at one time. In short, consumers and investors rely upon the sharing of stories to construct their image of what is going on. Past examinations of the connection of storytelling and corporate strategy have focused on content analysis and a recent call has been to examine events or texts from a storytelling perspective (Barry Elmes, 1997). Some recent research recognizes that strategic orientations change over time (Black Farias, 2000) and/or may be simultaneously present (Ashmos, Duchan, McDaniel, 2000) and/or may be emergent (Mintzberg, 1987, 1990,1994; Mintzberg McHugh, 1985; Mintzberg Waters, 1985). Ways to determine changes in strategic orientation have included inference from actions (Grimm Smith, 1997) and the examination of archival documents, such as letters to shareholders (Landrum, 2000). We suggest that a more inclusive or Tamara approach is needed to show the complexity of forces that cause the ground to move. We assume there is something about the movement from a divided space in modern theater to the interpenetrating one of postmodern theater that makes Tamara a fit metaphor to analyze the Athletic Apparel Industry. In the past decades, the corporate forte was to sustain the modernist barrier between spaces, as in contemporary theater the spectators sat in their respective spaces and did not question the veracity of the performed narratives. In the last decade, as consumers and investors (first space) visited the stage themselves and entered the third space, or when the workers of the Third World were transported to the first one, then a more democratic theatrics of story production, distribution, and consumption became enacted on the global stage. The power of the corporate gatekeeper was dissolved. This study presumes that storytelling is useful in revealing corporate strategic orientation and in revealing when complexity forces changes and disrupts their orientations and postures. Stories are particularly useful in showing how individuals or corporations make sense of the world. Stories are sensemaking narratives of an organization (Boje, 1991, 1995; Czarniawska, 1998; Frye, 1957; Lieblich, Tuval-Mashiach, Zilber, 1998; Riessman, 1993; White, 1973). To explore storytelling and strategy intertextuality, we review an industry context that has been changing drastically over the past decade. The athletic shoe industry was chosen because it is a mature industry and has undergone many changes since the 1980s, such as the movement toward overseas production, increasing globalization, and involvement of activists over labor and environmental issues (Choe, 1999; Shetty, 1996). But it is the decade of the 1990s that has seen the most turbulent and complex changes, and its two most active players have been Nike and Reebok. For example, in 1998 Corporate Watch decided to turn their Greenwash Award into a Sweatwash Award and gave the prize to the Fair Labor Association, newly created by the White House Apparel Industry Partnership. They stated that, The Association will have the power to grant companies the right to sew no sweat labels in their clothing in return for what labor activists fear will amount to cosmetic improvements in sweatshop conditions. (Light, 1998:1) Corporations led by Nike, Reebok, Liz Claiborne and Phillips-Van Heusen (then L. L. Bean and Patagonia) joined with some unknown human rights groups on the taskforce to propose the creation of the Fair Labor Association (FLA). The more radical contingent, UNITE, (the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees), the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, and the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility-were taskforce members who resigned their White House Apparel Partnership positions to protest the weak monitoring practices, no living wage and no right to organize provisions of the FLA. Sweatwash was a reaction to watching two decades of corporate environmentalism become a full court PR press with slick advertising to present a green corporate image to the global stage while co-opting both the human and environmental rights movements. UNITE (1998) argues the FLA was created by a subgroup of the White House task force, consisting mostly of industry representatives from companies such as Nike, Reebok and Liz Claiborne and a few human rights groups. The FLA Clean Clothes/ No Sweat tag was the next industry strategy to mollify consumer and investors who were hearing more stories of exploitation; corporations feared their public image was tarnished by increased activism. In 1998, Nike announced plans to phase out PVC plastics in its shoes and other products and painted its web sites with plans to certify all of its 600 subcontract factories in IS014000 environmental standards. (This followed the 1997 release of the Ernst Young audit showing violations of Vietnamese environmental laws. Reebok, on the other hand, uses part of its advertising budget to give out Human Rights Awards (since 1992), while pretending to consumers and investors its products are `Made in the USA rather than being mostly made in China. Both firms did not just become enlightened one day to environmentalism and human rights, they are responding to public opinion and to amateur actors who are taking the global stage, entering the board room and shareh older meeting asking for independent monitoring of corporate claims (Introductory Guide To Unplugging Corporations, 2001). This study will examine the letters to shareholders of the top two firms in this industry, Nike and Reebok, to trace their environmental and social responsibility rhetoric (Landrum, 2000). To focus exclusively on the environmental and social responsibility narratives, we review Bojes (1999) model and classify the rhetoric in the letters to shareholders following his classification system. We follow with examples of Nike and Reeboks use of each type of rhetoric in their letters, showing the frequency of use of each type of rhetoric, and making some observations regarding Nike and Reeboks environmental and social responsibility rhetoric. Rhetoric in Use Boje (1999) offers a model to classify the environmental and social responsibility rhetoric of corporations. He identifies classifications ranging from a denial of responsibility for environmental and social problems to the embracing of green goals as central to the mission of the organization. These levels of response are: Denial Response One, the first response, is Denial. In Denial, the company denies accusations and ignores problems in their environmental and labor practices. Our hypothesis is that this can work when the three theatrical spaces remain bounded and divided, so that only the corporate executive or PR staff mediates what is going on to the other two spaces. In the Nike (1990-1999) and Reebok (1990-1999) letters, we looked for evidence of denial of problems or for evidence of ignoring problems related to environmental and labor practices. Nike Denial This section will provide some examples of passages coded within the Denial genre of environmental and social responsibility rhetoric. We offer our rationale for coding the passage within this genre. In the following 1994 passage, Nike chooses to criticize the media for their coverage of Nike problems. I coded this passage as denial since Nike refuses to acknowledge the problems that have been exposed by the media. 118: The blinder mentality is bad enough when judging the business world, but 119: it is characteristic of a more serious virus that is affecting the 120: coverage (or non-coverage) of significant cultural and political 121: stories. The sad truth is, as television news in general, and CNN in 122: particular, becomes ncreasingly invested in our lives, the print media 123: are pushed to greater extremes, forced to choose survival over 124: integrity, the most entertaining story over the real story, until we 125: come to this: The New York Times reduced to Vecsey on NIKE. The following passage from the 1995 Nike letter shows Nike again criticizing the media and Wall Street for failing to recognize Nike as a sound investment. Nike neglects to make any mention of the parti cular media exposes that have uncovered Nikes poor labor practices; thus, I have coded the passage as denial. 8: This brings us back to my frustration and, I am sad to say, the 89: futility of this document. It simply does not matter what we say in 90: words or put in numbers in the annual report. This poor little binder 91: is simply overwhelmed by electronic and print sound bites, or ignored 92: by the show biz-oriented media who convey a point of view in conflict 93: with sound investment. 94: 95: As Director John Jaqua says, This has reached the point of 96: ridicularity. 97: 98: So how, in that world, can you understand the who, what, when, where 99: and why of any company, especially one as controversial as NIKE? 00: 101: The sad answer: Cant really. It would be easy if we could bring 102: everybody to the NIKE Campus, or take everybody to 103: the Final Four, or the Olympic Trials, or the World Cup, or a Nebraska 104: high school football game, or a pick-up game on 125th Str eet. Thats 105: the world NIKE lives in. But, we cant do that. 106: 107: Instead, well send our managers back to do what they do: develop and 108: grow the best global company possible, and let the hurricane of media 109: hype blow on around us. The following Nike 1996 passage blames the media for blasting their overseas practices. Even though they have finally acknowledged this particular problem exposed by the media, they choose not to discuss it within the letter to shareholders or within the body of the annual report. Still, Nike did publish a 10-page supplement defending Nikes position; however, it only further exemplifies their denial of the problem. 9: Yet no sooner had the great year ended than we were hit by a series of 10: blasts from the media about our practices overseas. 11: 12: So I sat with a dilemma: Use this space to answer our critics 13: isrepresentations, which would leave little room for anything else, or 14: try to give our owners the bigger picture of their company. 15: 16: I decided to do the latter with, like Roger Maris home run record, an 17: asterisk. We answer the overseas questions in a supplement that is 18: included in the annual report mailing. The following 1997 Nike passage continues to suggest that Nike is failing to acknowledge the problems associated with their overseas lab or practices despite the fact that they have been repeatedly detailed in the media. 3: To do that, I first have to take a second to talk about the filter 34: obstacle, that haze we have to fight through to explain what goes on 35: around this company. 36: 37: NIKE (and the entire industry) tends to be a bit misunderstood. The 38: media prefer to treat us all as the entertainment portion of the 39: business world. So, they feel free to exaggerate, to interpret, to 40: extrapolate. To say they are prone to hyperbole would be an 41: understatement. To say that is how they make their living would not. Reebok Denial No Reebok letters were coded in this category. Green Gloss/Green Wash Response Two is Green Gloss or Green Wash. During this phase, the company launches public relations campaigns to counteract negative publicity or accusations of activists. Nike Green Gloss/Green Wash In the following 1998 Nike excerpt, the company finally begins to acknowledge that labor practices are affecting their bottom line; however, I view this acknowledgment as more of an effort to discontinue denial and patronize the public rather than to make a meaningful effort to change the situation. 24: So, what knocked us down in 1998? 25: 26: Asia brown shoes labor practices resignations ayoffs 27: boring ads. Also, we have been criticized for our headquarters 28: expansion. But understand this: We need a much bigger place to house 29: all our troubles. I have also coded the 1997 Nike passage, mentioned previously (lines 33-41), as another example of green gloss/green wash. The companys defense of themselves in a 10-page supplement not only represented a denial of the problem, but also a public relations effort to justify their practices. Reebok Green Gloss/Green Wash No Reebok letters were coded in this category. Strategic Awareness Response Three is Strategic Awareness. During this phase, there is minimal compliance yet awareness exists of the need for change. Nike Strategic Awareness In the following 1998 Nike passage, the company suggests that the media is slowly becoming more knowledgeable of its questionable overseas labor practices. However, this ostensible change in media attitude is due to the fact that Nike has put forth a good-faith effort to improve their labor practices, and in turn, the media has simply begun to report these changes. 93: On our labor practices: Our friends in the media are slowly becoming 94: more knowledgeable. This is good. It means that consumers are 95: actually getting informed rather than just alarmed. This, too, will 96: take time. Meanwhile, the contrasts between us and our competitors and 97: other companies in the needle trade will show more each year. The following 1998 Nike passage suggests that it realizes that Americans are aware of their overseas practices, and accordingly, that Nike should be credited for this shift in public consciousness. 99: There is an interesting relationship going on between the Asia economic 100: crisis and the labor practices issue, which would take many chairmans [sic] 101: letters to cover. Instead, let me cut straight to the moral of the 102: story: It is simply not acceptable for America to continue to be 103: moated Reebok Strategic Awareness No Reebok letters were in this category. Strategic Acquisition Response Four is Strategic Acquisition, or a voluntary move toward environmental audits and social responsibility. Although Nike makes no mention of their environmental audits, 1997 marked their first voluntary, environmental audit and was conducted by Ernst ; Young. Nike Strategic Acquisition No Nike letters were coded in this category. Reebok Strategic Acquisition Throughout their letters, Reebok makes reference to the fact that they seek to help make a better world and to make a difference. This is evidenced by the following passages from 1990 (lines 47-48) and 1991 (lines 59-60). The company has made a voluntary movement toward being socially responsible. 47: a high level of consciousness and a sense of responsibility to help 48: make a better world. 59: to make a difference for our consumers 60: and ourselves. Flagship Implementation Response Five is Flagship Implementation, in which the firm makes proactive moves to change their core mission and to include green goals. Nike Flagship Implementation No Nike letters were in this category. Reebok Flagship Implementation In the following passages, Reebok makes mention of the various programs and initiatives they started in order to become a socially responsible company. 1992 60: Our push for success, however, has not lessened our desire to make a 61: difference in the larger world. Reebok is unique in its dedication to 62: human rights. Through our Human Rights Awards Program, which just com 63: pleted its fifth year, we strive to bring attention to young people 64: around the world who advance the cause of human rights. This year, 65: through a grant from The Reebok Foundation, a new human rights program 66: began. WITNESS, a program providing video cameras, facsimile machines 67: and computers to human rights organizations, allows human rights acti 68: vists to document abuses of justice for the world to see. 1993 61: Finally, let us note that the aspirations of Reebok extend beyond the 62: bottom line. Our commitment to the pursuit of human rights continues. 3: Once again, we recognized brave young people for their stand on human 64: rights one each from Belgium, Brazil, Egypt, and the United States. 65: Our Reebok Foundation helped inner city young people in United States 66: urban areas. Our Human Rights Production Standards, in place throughout 67: the world, helped assure that workers manufacturing Reebok pr oducts 68: benefited from quality conditions and fair labor practices. 1994 117: Another dimension of Reebok that enhances our global brand image is our 118: goal to be in the forefront of the corporate movement toward social 19: responsibility. We are the acknowledged corporate leader in promoting 120: human rights. Young people around the world, we believe look to 121: companies that stand for more than their great products. We 122: established the Reebok Human Rights Awards program in 1988, and we 123: continue to support it. This commitment led us to establish the Reebok 124: Human Rights Production Standards, through which we strive to improve 125: labor practices in overseas factories that make our products. This 126: commitment also is why we are working to make products that are 127: environmentally sound. We believe that companies should stand for 128: something. We believe our brand should stand for something. Personal 129: athletic achievement is a powerful message, but it is not enough on its 130: own. Reebok does stand for something, and as a result a new generation 131: of young people are able to see that a company can be a source not only 132: of exciting products, but of social good. 1996 55: Our Company continued its long-held commitment to human rights with the 56: Ninth Annual Human Rights Awards in 1996, honoring young activists in 57: their struggle for human rights around the world. Our efforts in this 58: area extend beyond this recognition program and include our 59: establishment in 1992 of human rights production standards that we hold 60: our factories accountable to follow. Most recently, in 1996 in 61: response to the problem of child labor widely utilized in the stitching 62: of soccer balls, we entered into an agreement with our supplier to 63: build a soccer ball manufacturing facility in Pakistan that will allow 64: us to guarantee that all Reebok soccer balls will be made without the 65: rise of child labor. 148: we will continue to focus our efforts 49: on making a difference to our customers to our employees and to our 150: shareholders. 1998 42: I believe that the values that Reebok International stands for 43: as a company are precisely those values that consumers are looking for in todays marketplace. 84: One of the crucial elements of this plan is the repositioning of Reebok Unlimited based on the 85: concept of humanity. Actually, this is not so much of a repositioning as a rediscovery of the 86: values of creativity, free-spiritedness and individualism that we have always represented as a 87: company, but have deviated from recently in our advertising and marketing. Based on a return 88: to these universal human values, we believe Reebok Unlimited is in a unique position to appeal 89: to both the authentic performance and casual lifestyle markets at the same time. Table 1 Table 2: Figure One: Frequency of the use of environmental narratives by Nike and Reebok over the tenyear period, 1990 to 1999 134: WE STAND FOR DOING THE RIGHT THING. 135: 136: Over the past year, a lot has been written about our industry and the issue of human rights. 137: We have been a leader in this area for more than a decade. Running a company involves a lot 138: more than crunching numbers and whatever else gets in your way. It involves a commitment 139: of equal respect and fair treatment for all people. Simply put, this is the Reebok way. It will 140: always be the Reebok way. As concern for human rights issues grows among consumers 141: particularly younger consumers we believe our leadership and reputation will translate into 142: greater preference for our brands and products. Although Nike makes little mention of their environmental practices, labor practices, or social responsibility, those passages included in the letters primarily engage in denial, green gloss, and strategic awareness rhetorical styles. Nikes main response mode during the 1990s was denial. Reebok, on the other hand, mentioned their social responsibility efforts in many of their letters and were primarily engaged in strategic acquisition and flagship implementation rhetoric. Reeboks main response mode was flagship implementation. The companies were at opposite ends of the spectrum in their primary response mode during the 1990s. Both companies, however, were engaged in poor labor practices in their overseas operations (Baskin, 1996; Ernst Young, 1997; Fireman, 1999; Manning, 1997a-g; Nguyen, 1997; Reebok, 1999). The difference is that Nike was denying the problems while Reebok was trying to be open about the problems and address them. Interestingly, we can conclude that being socially responsible and environmentally aware did not result in increased market share or profitability for Reebok. They continued to lose sales and market share throughout the 1990s (Figures 4 and 5). Reebok expected that their social responsibility stance would differentiate them from the competition. Rather, research and development and marketing are key success factors for this industry and Nike outperforms Reebok in both areas. Conclusion Boje (1999) puts forth a model of stages of environmental and social responsibility rhetoric. He suggests that rhetoric falls somewhere in a continuum ranging from Denial to Flagship Implementation. On one end of this continuum, companies may deny any responsibility for or ownership of their negative actions. The next stage of this continuum reflects rhetoric that glosses over issues and uses public relations campaigns in response to negative publicity. The third stage of Bojes (1999) continuum is rhetoric that acknowledges a need for change and puts forth gestures of minimal compliance. The fourth stage on this continuum is rhetoric that shows voluntary movement toward social responsibility and the last stage on the continuum is flagship implementation of environmental practices and embracing social responsibility. This article has shown that rhetoric is a useful way in which to understand and interpret a companys strategy. We have shown a more penetrating, or Tamara, view of the rhetoric of the athletic apparel industry leaders. Through analysis of letters to shareholders of Nike and Reebok over a ten-year period, we have shown Nike and Reeboks use of environmental and social responsibility rhetoric. The results show that Nike has engaged in Denial as their primary rhetorical style and Reebok has engaged in Flagship Implementation as their primary rhetorical style. The companies are at opposite extremes of this continuum. In spite of Nikes denial and Reeboks engagement of social responsibility, Nike revenues have skyrocketed and Reebok sales have plummeted (Figure 4). Figure 2. Figure 3. Figure 4. If rhetoric indeed reveals strategy, these findings suggest that social responsibility and profits are negatively correlated for these two companies. In both Figures 2 and 3, we see the frequency of nvironmental and social responsibility rhetoric used by both companies increased. Nike engaged in rhetoric on the negative end of the continuum, suggesting denial of social responsibility; Reebok engaged in rhetoric on the positive end of the continuum, suggesting implementation of social responsibility. Also near this time, revenues and market share of both companies began to move in a dire ction negatively correlated with the level of social responsibility (Figures 4 and 5). The empirical evidence has been mixed on the relationship between corporate financial performance and social performance. Some researchers (Preston ; OBannon, 1997; Roman, Hayibor, Agle, 1999) have found a positive relationship between corporate social performance and financial performance and other researchers (Ingram and Frazier, 1983; Freedman and Jaggi, 1982) have found a negative relationship. In the case of negative correlations between financial performance and social performance, it is argued that the costs associated with social responsibility put the firm in an unfavorable financial position compared to firms that are not socially responsible (Aupperle, Carroll, Hatfield, 1985). Clearly the relationship between corporate financial performance and social performance is not fully understood. Nonetheless, rhetorical analysis is a useful postmodern tool in revealing a companys strategy and in revealing when changes or shifts in strategy occur. Figure 5 [Reference] REFERENCES Retrieved May 28, 2000, from the World Wide Web: http:// www. netadvantage. standardpoor. com/netahtml/ IndSur/apf/apf_0999. htm Czarniawska, B. (1998). A narrative approach to organization studies. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. [Reference] Ernst ; Young (1997, January 6). Environmental and labor practice audit. Retrieved May 28, 2000, from the World Wide Web: http:/ www. corpwatch. org/trac/nike/ernst/audit. html Fireman, Paul (1999, October 17). Steps we must take on third-world labor. The Washington Post, p. B7. Freedman, M. ; Jaggi, B. (1982). Pollution disclosures, pollution performance and economic performance. Omega, 10, 167-176 Frye, N. (1957). Anatomy of criticism: Four essay . Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. [Reference] Grimm, C. M. ; Smith, K. G. (1997). Strategy as action: Industry rivalry and coordination. Cincinnati, OH: South-Western College Publishing. Ingram, R. ;Frazier, K. (1980). Environmental performance and corporate disclosure. Journal of Accounting Research, 18, 614-622. Introductory Guide to Unplugging Corporations (2001) Retrieved March 3, 2001 from the World Wide Web: http:// www. georgiastrait. org/Unplugging%20Corps. 3. pdf [Reference] Landrum, N. (2000). A Quantitative and Qualitative Examination of the Dynamics of Nike and Reebok Storytelling as Strategy. Doctoral dissertation: New Mexico State University. Lieblich, A. , Tuval-Mashiach, R. ; Zilber, T. (1998). Narrative research: Read analysis. and intc=tation.

Initiatives for Afghan Women Involvement with Politics

Initiatives for Afghan Women Involvement with Politics Key Initiatives Education:  Investing in girls’ education is the single most effective development decision a country can make. Beyond doubling the skilled workforce, this investment results in healthier young women, delayed marriages, and healthier children in the families that these educated young women create. Under the Taliban, fewer than 900,000 boys – and no girls – were enrolled in Afghanistan’s schools.Today, more than 6.2 million students are enrolled in Afghan schools, 35 percent of whom are girls. Although educational indicators remain poor in Afghanistan – and are worse for women who have only a 21 percent literacy rate – USG initiatives are removing barriers and opening doors. Since 2001, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) repaired or built more than 670 schools, printed 69 million textbooks, and improved the qualifications of 54,000 Afghan teachers in instructional methodologies, subject knowledge and professional attitudes. These programs have expanded and improved the quality of community-based education in areas where there are no government schools.USG assistance has extended to 18 provinces, 1,565 communities, more than 43,000 children (60 percent of whom are girls), and 1,565 teachers. In the last fiscal year, we provided literacy training and instruction in productive skills to more than 100,000 people from over 1,500 communities in 20 provinces. We are committed to working with the government of Afghanistan to further expand these programs, and to enhance the female literacy rate and women’s and girls’ access to formal and informal education at all levels. Security:  We continue to urge the Afghan government to protect women leaders, and to take seriously the everyday threats against women and girls by extremists who try to discourage school attendance by destroying schools or throwing acid on young schoolgirls. We support and admire the bravery and determination of Afghan families and the Afghan girls who insist their access to education in the face of such threats. Our programs provide greater protection to girls’ schools and health facilities, for example by building protective walls when requested. We are increasing women’s participation in the security sector through both recruitment and promotion of women as well as training on gender-related topics for men with the Afghan National Police and Afghan National Army.From 2003 to the present, Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) programs have trained over 500 female police officers to play a stronger role regarding women’s issues within the police force; 166 of those officers are employed in Family Response Units (FRUs) devoted to domestic violence cases. Our assistance has improved the number and capacity of FRUs that respond to cases of violence against women; U.S. mentors have worked with over three dozen FRUs in 10 provinces. These FRUs addressed 897 cases during 2009. Our programs also conduct outreach to Afghan communities to teach them about the FRUs and to encourage women affected by violence to make use of their services. Political Process:  For women to have a voice in their nation’s political process, they need to be able to participate in all levels of government. They need to be represented in greater numbers in civil service positions, and they need to have an active role in the peace process. UN Security Council Resolution 1325 reaffirms the need to include women in deliberations on international peace and security at all stages, including conflict resolution and post-conflict planning and peace-building. Their voices need to be heard, not only because they have the right to participate in the decisions that affect their lives, but also because their experiences and perspectives improve the quality of the resulting policies. Women’s involvement in all Afghan conflict-resolution processes is a USG priority. Women’s caucuses are being strengthened in Parliament and their leadership developed in the civil service through professional exchange programs and technical assistance. We have increased the number of male and female Parliamentarians educated about the principles of equal rights that are enshrined in the Afghan Constitution. We need to encourage the expansion of existing national and international scholarships for women, as well as expanding the number of existing internship programs for women in Afghan Ministries, and are looking at funding options in this regard. In March, we are launching a program for emerging female leaders from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the U.S. where they will receive diplomatic training. In advance of Parliamentary elections this fall, we are making use of public outreach and education as well as financial support to Afghan-led civic education programs for men and women in order to encourage women’s greater electoral participation, both as candidates and as voters. We have supported training for female members of Parliament and women leaders elected at the grassroots level on how to be more effective and capable leaders. Rule of Law and Human Rights:  Some progress has been made in the area of women’s human rights, but much remains to be done. Violence against women and girls is endemic, including domestic abuse, rape, forced marriages, forced prostitution, kidnappings, and so-called â€Å"honor† killings. This violence cannot be explained away as cultural; it is criminal, and must be addressed as such. The overall USG justice strategy explicitly refers to the need to ensure that women’s rights are promoted and protected by Afghan justice systems. Central to that objective is the need to intertwine women’s rights within both the formal and traditional sectors – and to ensure that USG funding for traditional justice programs provides a platform for supporting, rather than diminishing, women’s rights. Afghan women and girls can still be sent to prison for â€Å"moral crimes,† including fleeing domestic violence or eloping. Many State Department Programs help civil society organizations and Afghan policy makers advocate for reform of such discriminatory laws, including the Gender Justice component of JSSP, the Increasing Women’s Rights and Access to Justice in Afghanistan program, and the Advancing Human Rights and Women’s Rights within an Islamic Framework program. Our programs also train and educate male and female police officers, prosecutors, defense attorneys, corrections officers and others in civil society in the fair interpretation and application of the sections of the penal code that affect women.From January to mid-August 2009, 109 women and 905 men participated in INL-funded Justice Sector Support Program (JSSP) trainings and professional development opportunities.Some training topics focused on violence against women issues, including gender justice training for lawyers, victim advocacy training (with UNIFEM), gender justice training for corrections officers, and gender justice training for Family Response Unit police officers. When women are imprisoned, INL programs help examine why women are incarcerated and whether it is safe for them to return after their release, as well as advocate for humane treatment and the provision of education during and after incarceration. With regard to women’s involvement in local shuras, we work to link the state and traditional systems of governance to encourage them to isolate and reject traditional practices that harm women while harnessing and strengthening elements that reinforce women’s equality and access to justice. Our INL programs also provide counseling and shelter services to women affected by domestic violence. To build on these services, we are mobilizing attorneys, government officials, and the public to combat violence against women and trafficking in persons.We are encouraging the re-establishment of the Afghan women judges association, and we support the development of an Afghan women lawyer’s network. We exert moral suasion to promote human rights in Afghanistan by building awareness of the provisions and obligations of the international treaties and agreements to which Afghanistan is a signatory. The United States continues to support the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC). In addition, we support the courageous progressive voices within Afghanistan, including the movements that successfully engaged with the Afghan government in 2009 to excise and redraft the most restrictive and objectionable sections of the Shia Personal Status Law , although some concerns remain.We continue to support the swift implementation and strict enforcement of the Elimination of Violence Against Women law. We engage women on how they can use their roles and influence within the family and community to combat the spread of violent extremist ideologies and to cultivate support for women’s development. We put our extensive PRT presence to use in extending public outreach on women’s issues beyond the cities. With increased civilian expertise at PRTs we are more actively able to identify key women leaders, determine the needs of women in local communities, and identify and provide appropriate assistance. In many areas, these experts are able to ensure that women’s shuras are consulted on development projects and have a say in local development matters. Health:  Progress on women’s health has been substantial since 2002, but challenges clearly remain. Even after significant improvement, Afghanistan is still estimated to have the second-highest maternal mortality rate in the world. Other health indicators for women, particularly in reproductive health, are similarly low. Drug addiction is also a problem among Afghan women and their children. INL funds the only three residential drug treatment centers for women, with adjacent child care and treatment facilities, in Kabul, Herat, and Balkh. Three new centers will open in Farah, Badakhshan, and Nangarhar provinces during 2010. With USG assistance, women’s access to health care has risen dramatically since 2001. The number of midwives available to assist with deliveries has quadrupled; the number of health facilities with women health workers has more than doubled. According to a study by Johns Hopkins University, antenatal care went visits went up sevenfold from 2003 to 2006. With more women receiving proper care from trained health workers during pregnancy and delivery, Afghans are seeing better outcomes for women and newborns. We will continue to expand these existing programs to further increase women’s access to health services, to essential medicines, family planning, and pre- and postnatal care so that women have access to the services and information they require for good health. During Ambassador Verveer’s trip to Afghanistan this past June, she and Ambassador Eikenberry announced the start of a small grants program to support gender equality in Afghanistan. The three-year USD 26.3 million program has recently made its first grants to women-led NGOs in the diverse areas of training in mechanized lace embroidery for sale, computer and English skills, radio programming for women, and the provision of dairy cows for women’s agricultural initiatives. In all these ways, through the small grants programs and through other economic initiatives, Afghan women are improving their own lives and those of their families

Who Should Be the Determining Factor? Essay -- Gay Marriage Homosexual

Who Should Be the Determining Factor? In today’s society more people are getting engaged in gay marriages and becoming more open to society. From our society changing from a highly conservative rate to a more liberal state, this will increase the amount of open mindedness towards gay marriages. These two short arguments represent the pros and cons of gay marriage; and why gay marriages should be allowed. Andrew Sullivan will be discussing why gays should be allowed to be married. In contrast to Sullivan, William Bennett wrote a response to give a heterosexual perspective. Throughout this paper there will be numerous summarizing and synthesizing for the two arguments. Because there is two such different points of views this helps the contrast of both. In my synthesis there are topics that relate to Bennett and how he doesn’t have a strong enough back up to say who should and shouldn’t get married. In the essay, â€Å"Let Gays Marry,† by Andrew Sullivan, there were a few main arguments stated. In the document, Sullivan claims that gays and lesbians want the government to enable the law so it lets gays get married. They presented themselves in front of the Supreme Court and in fact, this was the first time they actually got some acknowledgment. Gays and lesbians are going to want to be together (some are lucky enough to meet that special someone), basically why not give them the right to be an equal citizen? The fact that churches do not want them to get married is not the focus; the difference is that Sullivan wants the government to take action. He’s simply asking for the government’s approval to allow a civil marriage. No one has the choice to be white, black, female, male, gay, hetero, etc. As a response to Bill Bennett,... ...on different scenarios. In the beginning half of the paper there is a summary of both stories, â€Å"Let Gays Marry† and â€Å"Leave Marriage Alone.† Basically in â€Å"Let Gays Marry,† it discusses how gays feel towards the society and how they don’t want to be second- class citizens. Also, it explains you cannot choose to black, white, gay, etc... In â€Å"Leave Marriage Alone,† Bennett believes that it will hurt the heterosexual marriage institution. Within the essay the focus was mainly on how same sex unions go against Church and God. Lastly, based on a 4,000 year tradition nothing should be adjusted. I believe that the contrast and summarizing was the main outcome of the essay. Clearly this represents two people who have very strong and different perspectives/personalities. In the end there will be the good/bad aspects of gay marriages, people will always feel uncomfortable.

Shifting Efficiency Essay -- essays research papers

Shifting Efficiency One of the most important and life-altering inventions in history is the creation of the automobile. The first model was built with a manual transmission, meaning the operator of the vehicle was responsible for manually changing gears to increase speed. This method of acceleration, while efficient, required the complete attention of the operator, and it sometimes took away the enjoyment of driving. This led to the invention of the automatic transmission, a method by which the operator of the vehicle no longer had to switch gears, as this was done automatically. Since the development of the automatic transmission, there has always been conflict about which method of acceleration is more efficient. Driving a vehicle with an automatic transmission allows for multitasking such as talking on a cell phone or eating a meal while driving. This, however, is not always a safe way to drive, especially in traffic when frequent stopping and going is necessary. This method of driving, though dangerous to many if it is not undertaken carefully, seems to be popular to most people who enjoy the freedom of multitasking. Driving a vehicle with a manual transmission makes it almost impossible for the operator to talk on a cell phone or do other tasks because the use of both hands is required to direct the vehicle and shift gears at the same time. To some people, this is a much safer method of driving, because it requires the driver to focus more, which reduces the risk of a...

Electronic Health Record

Abstract Electronic health records (EHR) is more and more being utilized in organizations offering healthcare to enhance the quality and safety of care. Understanding the advantages and disadvantaging of EHR is essential in the nursing profession as nurses would learn its strengths and weaknesses. This would help the nursing profession know how to deal with the weak areas of the system. The topic on advantages and disadvantages of EHR has been widely researched on with different researchers coming up with different opinions.Nurses ought to have knowledge on the advantages and disadvantages of EHR systems for them to use systems efficiently. This would transform the operations of health systems and benefit patients with quality service. The advantage and disadvantage of Electronic Health Records Electronic health records are designed for offering national access to selected information amassed from data found in medical records created by various providers irrespective of whether prov iders are in a similar healthcare system or in the event of patients of accident in a different healthcare facility (Devine, Hansen, Wilson-Norton, et al 2010).EHR is essential to nurses because it increases their efficiency hence undertake their mandate to offer care to patients effectively. Recently most of the sectors have made heavy investments in computerization of their services. The nursing practice is impacted significantly by the use EHR systems. There are both positive and negative impacts in the use of EHR systems. Some researchers have associated EHR with increased efficiency and high quality of care while others cite negative effects like high start of cost and confidentiality of health information.Understanding the advantages of EHR encourages nurses to make greater use of them, while understanding their disadvantages enables nurses to determine areas in which they ought to take caution when using them. Advantages of Electronic Health Records EHR and organizational out comes These organizational outcomes of EHR are mostly comprised of increased revenue and cost containment, together with other less tangible benefits like enhanced regulatory and legal compliance, increased job satisfaction, and improved ability to undertake research. Various authors have made the ssertion that EHRs help care givers in capturing patient charges accurately and at the right time (Devine, Hansen, Wilson-Norton, et al, 2010). Use of EHR ensures elimination of billing errors together with erroneous coding; this in turn increases the cash flow of the provider and enhancement of revenue. Appointment reminders by EHR to patients increases visits by these patients hence increasing revenue. Majority of averted costs linked to EHRs result from efficiencies which result from storing the information of patients electronically (Fleming, Culler, McCorkle, et al. 2011).These comprise of increased test utilization, reduction in resources of staff used in management of patients, redu ction of cost of supplies required for maintenance of paper folders decrease in cost of transcription and costs linked to pulling of charts. Other less tangible benefits include that there is increased operational performance and compliance to legal and regulatory requirements is improved. Additionally, researchers who use EHR experience less malpractice claims. EHRs Clinical outcomes The majority of clinical outcomes been focused relate to care quality and safety of patient.Care quality is defined as doing the appropriate action to the right person at the right time and in the appropriate manner and obtaining optimal results. Similarly safety of the patient is defined as avoiding injuries to patients from care aimed at helping them. Most of the research on EHR is focused on efficiency, effectiveness and patient safety. Weinger, (2010) made the assertion that computerized alerts directed at physicians enhanced the use of prophylactic care for patients hospitalized with the condition of deep vein thrombosis.There was a 19 percent increase in use of anticoagulation prophylaxis when computer alerts are used. This meant that there was 41 percent reduction in the risk of pulmonary embolism or deep vein thrombosis ninety days following discharge. In addition, researchers have established that there is a relation between efficiency and EHRs in the delivery of healthcare. EHRs societal benefits Improved ability to conduct research is another less tangible benefit associated with EHR.When the data for patients is electronically stored, makes the data easily accessible hence more quantitative analysis can be undertaken for identification of evidence-based best practices with ease. In addition, public health researchers use electronic clinical data more actively which have been amassed from a huge population hence coming up with research that benefits the society (Mitka, 2011). Clinical data availability is limited but this form of data will increase. Probable EHRs disad vantagesIrrespective of the findings regarding the advantages of various functionalities of EHRs, some probable drawbacks on EHR have been identified by researchers. These comprise of financial concerns, temporal loss in productivity linked with adoption of EHR, change in workflow, security and confidentiality concerns and several unintentional consequences. Financial concerns comprise of costs of adoption and implementation, cost of maintenance, revenue loss due to temporal low productivity, and revenue declination. These factors act as deterrent for physicians together with hospitals in adopting and implementing an EHR.The purchase and installation of software and hardware, conversion of paper files to electronic forms and training of end-users are major costs. Irrespective of the associated costs, EHR technology has become common recently, as the cost has gone down significantly. The cost of maintenance for EHR can as well be high; there ought to be replacement of hardware and up grading of software regularly. Other costs include fees for support, vendor software maintenance, external contractors’ payments and information systems staff payment.The majority of EHR financial benefits are not linked with the provider, but to the payers of third party in form of averted errors, and enhanced efficiencies; these translate into reduced payment of claims (DesRoches, Campbell, Vogeli, et al. 2010). Poor alignment of incentives for healthcare organizations and towering direct costs are an obstacle. Another probable disadvantage is the risk of violating the privacy of patients. Some of these concerns have been relieved by having policy makers take actions to ensure that patient data privacy is maintained (DesRoches, Campbell, Vogeli, et al. 2010). Recent legislation enforces stringent requirements which prevent unauthorized entities from accessing the data. Topic availability The topic on advantages and disadvantages of EHR is widely available both online and on printed sources. Searching the topic online a wide range of information was obtained. Google search engine had considerable information on the topic. In the search the keywords used were ‘Electronic Health Records’ and ‘EHR. ’ With these keywords, the information obtained was on general knowledge on electronic health records.On adding advantages and disadvantages to the EHR, more refined results on the positive and negative impacts of EHR were obtained. On adding ‘EHR effect on nursing’ the results obtained showed how EHR has positively and negatively affected the functionality of the healthcare system and nursing profession. Nursing and medical journals were mostly used to get this information. In the search, online libraries like EBCOHOST and Apollo library were used. When conducting the search only peer reviewed materials were chosen by selecting that option and the sources selected were not older than five years.For this case sources were chosen to be from 2010 up to 2013. On EBSCOHOST, with the above mentioned criteria and keywords the search results were 485. Apollo online library had search results of 502. This indicates that the topic is widely researched and there is adequate information online to be used for research and practical nursing practice. This search criterion was also used on Google scholar and relevant information was obtained. Information availability On conducting search online with various search engines, information was accessible in various formats.The information obtained showed articles written by researchers regarding the advantages and disadvantages of electronic health records. While some articles presented challenges, others presented benefits of the EHR system. Files were found in PDF PowerPoint and Word document formats. The obtained results on this topic could be used for a wide range of reasons. Some on the information touched on how professionals could use this information in their w ork. For instance, the information on the benefits of using EHRs could help nurses determine how well they can use the EHR systems to enhance efficiency in their operations.Professionals can also get the information of some of the negative impacts of electronic health records. As nurses get to understand this information, it can form basis for their research to unearth what has not yet been found. Some sections of information were useful for patients who want to know about the efficiency and privacy of the system. The administration would find the information useful because it shows ways in which the hospital will benefit as well as how it will be affected negatively by the EHR system.For instance, the administration of the health care facilities will ensure increase in efficiency in the provision of services and billing process would be improved (Otto & Nevo, 2013). Understanding these benefits would encourage healthcare administrators to make decisions on whether to adopt EHR syst ems. Personal views In the nursing practice, this technology of electronic health records poses some challenges that need to be addressed before it is adopted. The major concern of this topic is the security issue, whereby the confidentiality of the information stored in these systems is under question (Weinger, 2010).It is felt that unauthorized people may get access to this information and use it maliciously. Patients wouldn’t be willing to use this system unless they are assured that their information is secure. In addition, some nurses may have inadequate skills in using the system and can easily make errors that can put patients in danger. Therefore, the nurses should be adequately trained on the use of EHR systems. Failure to do so may put patients at risk and lower the quality of the care provided which would be contrary to the intentions of EHR. Though there are cons to using the system, the pros outweigh them. ConclusionThis paper has discussed the topic on advantage s and disadvantages related with adoption of EHR. EHR is widely believed to ensure that there is improved efficiency in provision of healthcare, cost is contained and that accuracy is maintained by reducing medical errors. Through adoption of EHR, it will be easy to conduct research as medical data of the required population would be readily available. Some of the drawbacks associated with use of EHR are financial concerns, temporal loss in productivity linked with adoption of EHR, change in workflow, security and confidentiality concerns and several unintentional consequences.Despite having many unintentional consequences of EHR on balancing the benefits with the drawbacks, EHRs are beneficial specifically at social level. Information on this topic is readily available and can be used as a basis for deciding whether to adopt the system or not. References DesRoches, C. M. , Campbell, E. G. , Vogeli, C. , et al. (2010). Electronic health records’ limited successes suggest more targeted uses. Health Aff (Millwood) 29(4), 639–646. Devine E. B. , Hansen R. N. , Wilson-Norton J. L, et al. (2010). The impact of computerized provider order entry on medication errors in a multispecialty group practice.J Am Med Inform Assoc. 17(1):78–84. Fleming NS, Culler SD, McCorkle R, et al. (2011). The financial and nonfinancial costs of implementing electronic health records in primary care practices. Health Aff (Millwood) 30(3), 481–489. Mitka, M. (2011). Electronic health records, The Journal of the American Medical Association, 305(14), p1402 Otto, P. & Nevo, D. (2013). Electronic health records, Journal of enterprise informationmanagement, 26(1/2), 165-182 Weinger, M. B. (2010). Electronic health records, The New England journal of medicine, 363(24), 2372-2374 Electronic Health Record Abstract Electronic health records (EHR) is more and more being utilized in organizations offering healthcare to enhance the quality and safety of care. Understanding the advantages and disadvantaging of EHR is essential in the nursing profession as nurses would learn its strengths and weaknesses. This would help the nursing profession know how to deal with the weak areas of the system. The topic on advantages and disadvantages of EHR has been widely researched on with different researchers coming up with different opinions.Nurses ought to have knowledge on the advantages and disadvantages of EHR systems for them to use systems efficiently. This would transform the operations of health systems and benefit patients with quality service. The advantage and disadvantage of Electronic Health Records Electronic health records are designed for offering national access to selected information amassed from data found in medical records created by various providers irrespective of whether prov iders are in a similar healthcare system or in the event of patients of accident in a different healthcare facility (Devine, Hansen, Wilson-Norton, et al 2010).EHR is essential to nurses because it increases their efficiency hence undertake their mandate to offer care to patients effectively. Recently most of the sectors have made heavy investments in computerization of their services. The nursing practice is impacted significantly by the use EHR systems. There are both positive and negative impacts in the use of EHR systems. Some researchers have associated EHR with increased efficiency and high quality of care while others cite negative effects like high start of cost and confidentiality of health information.Understanding the advantages of EHR encourages nurses to make greater use of them, while understanding their disadvantages enables nurses to determine areas in which they ought to take caution when using them. Advantages of Electronic Health Records EHR and organizational out comes These organizational outcomes of EHR are mostly comprised of increased revenue and cost containment, together with other less tangible benefits like enhanced regulatory and legal compliance, increased job satisfaction, and improved ability to undertake research. Various authors have made the ssertion that EHRs help care givers in capturing patient charges accurately and at the right time (Devine, Hansen, Wilson-Norton, et al, 2010). Use of EHR ensures elimination of billing errors together with erroneous coding; this in turn increases the cash flow of the provider and enhancement of revenue. Appointment reminders by EHR to patients increases visits by these patients hence increasing revenue. Majority of averted costs linked to EHRs result from efficiencies which result from storing the information of patients electronically (Fleming, Culler, McCorkle, et al. 2011).These comprise of increased test utilization, reduction in resources of staff used in management of patients, redu ction of cost of supplies required for maintenance of paper folders decrease in cost of transcription and costs linked to pulling of charts. Other less tangible benefits include that there is increased operational performance and compliance to legal and regulatory requirements is improved. Additionally, researchers who use EHR experience less malpractice claims. EHRs Clinical outcomes The majority of clinical outcomes been focused relate to care quality and safety of patient.Care quality is defined as doing the appropriate action to the right person at the right time and in the appropriate manner and obtaining optimal results. Similarly safety of the patient is defined as avoiding injuries to patients from care aimed at helping them. Most of the research on EHR is focused on efficiency, effectiveness and patient safety. Weinger, (2010) made the assertion that computerized alerts directed at physicians enhanced the use of prophylactic care for patients hospitalized with the condition of deep vein thrombosis.There was a 19 percent increase in use of anticoagulation prophylaxis when computer alerts are used. This meant that there was 41 percent reduction in the risk of pulmonary embolism or deep vein thrombosis ninety days following discharge. In addition, researchers have established that there is a relation between efficiency and EHRs in the delivery of healthcare. EHRs societal benefits Improved ability to conduct research is another less tangible benefit associated with EHR.When the data for patients is electronically stored, makes the data easily accessible hence more quantitative analysis can be undertaken for identification of evidence-based best practices with ease. In addition, public health researchers use electronic clinical data more actively which have been amassed from a huge population hence coming up with research that benefits the society (Mitka, 2011). Clinical data availability is limited but this form of data will increase. Probable EHRs disad vantagesIrrespective of the findings regarding the advantages of various functionalities of EHRs, some probable drawbacks on EHR have been identified by researchers. These comprise of financial concerns, temporal loss in productivity linked with adoption of EHR, change in workflow, security and confidentiality concerns and several unintentional consequences. Financial concerns comprise of costs of adoption and implementation, cost of maintenance, revenue loss due to temporal low productivity, and revenue declination. These factors act as deterrent for physicians together with hospitals in adopting and implementing an EHR.The purchase and installation of software and hardware, conversion of paper files to electronic forms and training of end-users are major costs. Irrespective of the associated costs, EHR technology has become common recently, as the cost has gone down significantly. The cost of maintenance for EHR can as well be high; there ought to be replacement of hardware and up grading of software regularly. Other costs include fees for support, vendor software maintenance, external contractors’ payments and information systems staff payment.The majority of EHR financial benefits are not linked with the provider, but to the payers of third party in form of averted errors, and enhanced efficiencies; these translate into reduced payment of claims (DesRoches, Campbell, Vogeli, et al. 2010). Poor alignment of incentives for healthcare organizations and towering direct costs are an obstacle. Another probable disadvantage is the risk of violating the privacy of patients. Some of these concerns have been relieved by having policy makers take actions to ensure that patient data privacy is maintained (DesRoches, Campbell, Vogeli, et al. 2010). Recent legislation enforces stringent requirements which prevent unauthorized entities from accessing the data. Topic availability The topic on advantages and disadvantages of EHR is widely available both online and on printed sources. Searching the topic online a wide range of information was obtained. Google search engine had considerable information on the topic. In the search the keywords used were ‘Electronic Health Records’ and ‘EHR. ’ With these keywords, the information obtained was on general knowledge on electronic health records.On adding advantages and disadvantages to the EHR, more refined results on the positive and negative impacts of EHR were obtained. On adding ‘EHR effect on nursing’ the results obtained showed how EHR has positively and negatively affected the functionality of the healthcare system and nursing profession. Nursing and medical journals were mostly used to get this information. In the search, online libraries like EBCOHOST and Apollo library were used. When conducting the search only peer reviewed materials were chosen by selecting that option and the sources selected were not older than five years.For this case sources were chosen to be from 2010 up to 2013. On EBSCOHOST, with the above mentioned criteria and keywords the search results were 485. Apollo online library had search results of 502. This indicates that the topic is widely researched and there is adequate information online to be used for research and practical nursing practice. This search criterion was also used on Google scholar and relevant information was obtained. Information availability On conducting search online with various search engines, information was accessible in various formats.The information obtained showed articles written by researchers regarding the advantages and disadvantages of electronic health records. While some articles presented challenges, others presented benefits of the EHR system. Files were found in PDF PowerPoint and Word document formats. The obtained results on this topic could be used for a wide range of reasons. Some on the information touched on how professionals could use this information in their w ork. For instance, the information on the benefits of using EHRs could help nurses determine how well they can use the EHR systems to enhance efficiency in their operations.Professionals can also get the information of some of the negative impacts of electronic health records. As nurses get to understand this information, it can form basis for their research to unearth what has not yet been found. Some sections of information were useful for patients who want to know about the efficiency and privacy of the system. The administration would find the information useful because it shows ways in which the hospital will benefit as well as how it will be affected negatively by the EHR system.For instance, the administration of the health care facilities will ensure increase in efficiency in the provision of services and billing process would be improved (Otto & Nevo, 2013). Understanding these benefits would encourage healthcare administrators to make decisions on whether to adopt EHR syst ems. Personal views In the nursing practice, this technology of electronic health records poses some challenges that need to be addressed before it is adopted. The major concern of this topic is the security issue, whereby the confidentiality of the information stored in these systems is under question (Weinger, 2010).It is felt that unauthorized people may get access to this information and use it maliciously. Patients wouldn’t be willing to use this system unless they are assured that their information is secure. In addition, some nurses may have inadequate skills in using the system and can easily make errors that can put patients in danger. Therefore, the nurses should be adequately trained on the use of EHR systems. Failure to do so may put patients at risk and lower the quality of the care provided which would be contrary to the intentions of EHR. Though there are cons to using the system, the pros outweigh them. ConclusionThis paper has discussed the topic on advantage s and disadvantages related with adoption of EHR. EHR is widely believed to ensure that there is improved efficiency in provision of healthcare, cost is contained and that accuracy is maintained by reducing medical errors. Through adoption of EHR, it will be easy to conduct research as medical data of the required population would be readily available. Some of the drawbacks associated with use of EHR are financial concerns, temporal loss in productivity linked with adoption of EHR, change in workflow, security and confidentiality concerns and several unintentional consequences.Despite having many unintentional consequences of EHR on balancing the benefits with the drawbacks, EHRs are beneficial specifically at social level. Information on this topic is readily available and can be used as a basis for deciding whether to adopt the system or not. References DesRoches, C. M. , Campbell, E. G. , Vogeli, C. , et al. (2010). Electronic health records’ limited successes suggest more targeted uses. Health Aff (Millwood) 29(4), 639–646. Devine E. B. , Hansen R. N. , Wilson-Norton J. L, et al. (2010). The impact of computerized provider order entry on medication errors in a multispecialty group practice.J Am Med Inform Assoc. 17(1):78–84. Fleming NS, Culler SD, McCorkle R, et al. (2011). The financial and nonfinancial costs of implementing electronic health records in primary care practices. Health Aff (Millwood) 30(3), 481–489. Mitka, M. (2011). Electronic health records, The Journal of the American Medical Association, 305(14), p1402 Otto, P. & Nevo, D. (2013). Electronic health records, Journal of enterprise informationmanagement, 26(1/2), 165-182 Weinger, M. B. (2010). Electronic health records, The New England journal of medicine, 363(24), 2372-2374